New loot boxes: Ubisoft boss defends controversial feature
Ubisoft’s NFT offensive has been loudly criticized by gamers. The publisher’s CEO has now defended the new microtransactions in a meeting and announced further NFT plans. However, his reasoning shows a fundamental misunderstanding.
For the NFTs in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint did Ubisoft received overwhelmingly negative feedback from the community. The implementation of the limited digital content even caused skepticism among the developers themselves. Now Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot has defended the NFTs in a meeting and has drawn an ominous comparison.
Ubisoft Quartz: CEO Defends NFTs
In the meeting with developers, Guillemot held the position that the NFTs in Ghost Recon Breakpoint were just the beginning of a larger campaign. He kept a low profile on the details of further steps, but stated that the negative reactions to Ubisoft Quartz would have been expected. Nonetheless, the development team raised concerns about the increased workload involved in implementing NFTs and public opinion on microtransactions in the publisher’s games.
Guillemot, on the other hand, compared it to the original community feedback on loot boxes and DLCs. He probably suggested that NFTs, like their microtransaction predecessors, would simply establish themselves in the industry after the initial protest. (Source: Kotaku)
NFTs at Ubisoft: Comparison suggests the worst (comment)
The problem with the comparison between the NFTs in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and the advent of Lootboxes is that it’s 100 percent correct – yes the lesson learned from it could not be more wrong. Nobody denies that NFTs could become the next step in the evolution of microtransactions, but this is exactly why the response to them has been so negative.
Microtransactions in general and loot boxes in particular are mechanics that, at best, ruin the fun of the game and In the worst case scenario, they can destroy the lives of vulnerable players. They are used solely to maximize the profits of publishers and have no positive effect on the games in which they can be found.
With this comparison, Guillemot has not contributed to the fact that the NFT offensive at Ubisoft is seen from a different perspective. Instead, it was simply confirmed that the limited digital content to nothing more than new sources of money for publishers acts. The fact that the Ubisoft CEO can’t or won’t see anything reprehensible about this is also no surprise – but it’s anything but reassuring and points to a bleak future for developers and gamers alike.
In our video we give a quick look back at the biggest upsets in the history of microtransactions:
The protest against Ubisoft’s NFT offensive continues in the community. However, Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot considers the reactions to be expected and made a comparison in a meeting that should by no means reassure gamers.
